A third of Kyiv is without heating after a Russian drone and missile barrage on the Ukrainian capital cut off power supplies, leaving hundreds of thousands of people facing freezing temperatures.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Moscow had used nearly 500 drones and 40 missiles, including ballistic missiles, in the overnight attack. “The primary target is Kyiv – energy facilities and civilian infrastructure,” he said in a post on X.
The intense overnight strikes lasted 10 hours and killed one person and wounded two dozen others. They came as the Ukrainian leader headed to Florida for a face-to-face meeting on Sunday with Donald Trump, who has proposed a plan to end nearly four years of fighting that has killed tens of thousands.
Zelensky said he was en route to the US and would stop in Canada, where he and the country’s prime minister, Mark Carney, would speak by video call with European allies later on Saturday. European and Canadian politicians and diplomats have sought to help Zelenskyy deal with Trump during negotiations.
The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, will take part in the call with Zelenskyy , a commission spokesperson said. Key sticking points include Ukrainian security guarantees and reconstruction, plus territorial discussions regarding the Donbas region and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
Zelenskyy said the overnight bombings showed international pressure on Russia was insufficient. “If Russia turns even the Christmas and New Year period into a time of destroyed homes and burned apartments, of ruined power plants, then this sick activity can only be responded to with truly strong steps,” he said. “The United States has this capability. Europe has this capability. Many of our partners have this capability. The key is to use it.”
Later on Saturday, Russia’s defence ministry said it had downed 111 Ukrainian drones, in what appeared to be a retaliatory attack.
Zelenskyy has said the upcoming meeting with Trump in Florida is “specifically intended to refine things as much as we possibly can”. Speaking on Friday, he added that a proposed 20-point peace plan was “90% ready”. “Our goal is to bring everything to 100%,” Zelenskyy said. “As of today, our teams – the Ukrainian and American negotiating teams – have made significant progress.”
Zelenskyy has reportedly said he would need to seek approval of the Ukrainian public if he failed to secure a “strong” position on territory.
After the strikes on Saturday, Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said Russia’s “only response to peace efforts” was “brutal attacks using hundreds of drones and missiles against Kyiv and other cities and regions”. The minister said that a third of the capital was without heating. The temperature in Kyiv was about 0C (32F).
The Russian strikes forced Polish fighter jets to scramble, and two airports in south-eastern Poland – Rzeszów and Lublin – were temporarily closed.
The latest peace efforts follow a burst of diplomatic activity last weekend in Miami, where Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff met separately with Russian and Ukrainian representatives, as well as Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
The plan is considered an updated version of an earlier 28-point document agreed several weeks ago between the US envoys and Russian officials, a proposal widely viewed as skewed towards the Kremlin’s demands.
Ukraine has pushed for security guarantees modelled on Nato’s article 5 mutual defence pledge under any proposed peace deal with Russia, though it remains unclear whether Moscow would accept such terms.
In an interview with Politico on Friday, Trump said he anticipated a “good” meeting with the Ukrainian leader, though he offered no endorsement of Zelenskyy’s plan. “He doesn’t have anything until I approve it,” Trump told the news website. “So we’ll see what he’s got.”
The Russian deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, used a Russian television appearance on Friday to criticise Zelenskyy and European allies on their work on the peace plan. “Our ability to make the final push and reach an agreement will depend on our own work and the political will of the other party,” Ryabkov said.
He said the proposal drawn up with Zelenskyy’s input “differs radically” from points initially drawn up by US and Russian officials in contacts this month. “Without an adequate resolution of the problems at the origin of this crisis, it will be quite simply impossible to reach a definitive accord,” Ryabkov added.
